Compounding Pharmacies

MORENIKE ISOLA – For over a century, compounding pharmacies have remained an industry of great controversy due to their perceived benefits in contrast with the risk they bring on people’s health and even the economy. Essentially, a compounding pharmacy is a branch of pharmacy that dispenses medication it makes from scratch. This contrasts with a regular pharmacy that dispenses medication already developed and approved by the FDA. In theory, compounding pharmacies were established to design medication that met the specific or unusual needs of a patient. For example, a patient may be allergic to certain ingredients in an FDA approved drug, but a compounding pharmacy could design the same drug without those ingredients and yet serve the same purpose. These pharmacies could also combine multiple prescriptions into one drug that the patient could take.

Although this industry seems like a great way to fulfill medical needs of the public, there is a major flaw in the field of compounding pharmacy that has given rise to many fatalities and economic repercussions. There is a lack of official oversight and regulation for compounding pharmacies, which means that they have complete autonomy over their own drug production. This suggests that physicians prescribing compounded drugs along with the general public have no insight regarding the safety, sterility, or basic ingredients of the medication. Since compounded drugs are not officially approved by the FDA, there is also no evidence of the drug’s effectiveness. As a result, the exorbitant funding for compounding pharmacies is essentially wasted on resources and ingredients that produce useless drugs. According to a local report, 33% of compounding drugs fail to serve their purpose as opposed to the 97%  success rate of FDA approved drugs. Furthermore, many compounded drugs have not been thoroughly inspected, which opens the possibility of fungal/bacterial infection being passed down to the patients. Overall, the persistent lack of oversight and inspection of the drugs produced by compounding pharmacies has put many individuals at risk for exacerbated medical conditions or even death.

The best way to respond to this uncontrolled industry is to heavily enforce regulation on the production of drugs and inspection before they are widely distributed. Congress passed a law which enhanced regulation by requiring compounding pharmacies to register an outsourcing facility for much stricter inspection. However, this requirement was only voluntary, and many compounding pharmacy owners refused to submit their drugs for inspection. This suggests that the law must be revised to reduce all loopholes and force compounding pharmacies to submit their drugs for inspection. Hospitals and clinics must also do their part by refusing to receive medication from such pharmacies unless they have been inspected for sterility and approved for safety/efficiency. In the end, compounding pharmacies were intended to help those who may need these special drugs to be well. However, it requires heavy enforcement and regulation to ensure compounded drugs are not only safe for use but do what they were designed to do. As a result, compounding pharmacies will be perceived more so to help the public instead of accomplishing personal or financial agenda.